Detroit Mayor Dave Bing considered City Council a 'nuisance,' president says

"He had five or six members of the council who were willing to ... do an unpopular thing for the greater good. He blew it by being combative with us."

Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh addresses the Urban Redevelopment Breakfast and Networking group on Friday, April 26 at Great Lakes Coffee in Detroit. Michael Davis of Hamtown Farms listens in.

DETROIT, MI - Detroit Mayor Dave Bing blew an opportunity to work with a supportive City Council when he took office and has never recovered, City Council President Charles Pugh said Friday.

"He was used to be a CEO with a hand-picked board," Pugh said, referring to Bing's former job as CEO of Bing Enterprises. "His name was on the building. He was not used to working with a group of people who say, 'No, we're not doing it this way.'"

Rather than work with council, Bing said, Bing treated council members as a "nuisance."

"He had five or six members of the council who were willing to be bold, do an unpopular thing for the greater good," Pugh said. "... He blew it by being combative with us."

Pugh spoke Friday morning at Great Lakes Coffee Co. in Midtown to the Urban Redevelopment Breakfast and Networking. About 20 people attended the free-flowing discussion on the status and future of Detroit city government. (URBAN's next get-together is 7:30 a.m. on May 3 at Louie's in Eastern Market.)

Pugh addressed a number of topics, including Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, Hantz Farms, the switch to City Council by district, Bing's time in office, and more. Here's a recap:

Emergency Manager

Pugh said Orr, who has near total authority to run the city, is carving out space for elected to handle day-to-day operations in Detroit while he works on restructuring city debt and stabilizing city finances.

"There is a role for the mayor and City Council," Pugh said. "... He (Orr) stays in his lane. In the meantime, the city has to be run."

"No final product will make everyone happy and is perfect," said Pugh, who voted for the project.

"We had people calling it all kinds of things ... a land grab, giving away land for pennies on the dollars. People said we should let the land sit there, underutilized, the way it has been for a long time."

While the council put a lot of time into Hantz Farms, Pugh said, the decision was relatively small in terms of Detroit as a whole.

"We do have 140 square miles," Pugh said. "The several acres we were dealing with are a big part of that neighborhood, but in the grand scheme of all we're dealing with, it's a small percentage."

Council by District

The city's switch to electing City Council members by district, instead of electing the entire council as at-large members, will empower city residents to improve and fight for their neighborhoods, Pugh said.

For example, residents in a district may see problems with police response in their neighborhood and pressure their elected City Council member to demand more officers on the street. Right now, a neighborhood doesn't have an effective mechanism in city government to demand change, Pugh said.

The new charter also requires City Council members to meet with district residents regularly throughout the year.

"Right now, we don't have to meet with anybody," Pugh said. "And some people (City Council members) don't."

Mayor Bing

Pugh's criticism of Bing even brought in ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

"Say what you will about Kwame … he understood the value of collective work to make things happen," Pugh added. "As a legislator, you can't do anything by yourself, except make noise."

Bing struggled to work with others, Pugh said. One example: Pugh Pugh said Bing has visited his office once since he took office and generally doesn't interact with council members to get his ideas passed.

"He came to my office one time. How do you serve as mayor and only visit the City Council president one time?" Pugh said. "If I was mayor, I'd be in those hallways three times a week asking how can we make this better?"

Pugh said he hopes Bing decides not to run for re-election. He declined to endorse any of the candidates who are running for office.